CLAW IN LA LA LAND

The story may be apocryphal, but if true — and we believe it is — it’s a telling anecdote about the graffiti artist Claw, a.k.a., Claw Money., a.k.a., Claudia Gold. Back in the day, in the 1990s, a friend of ours and Claw dated briefly. As he recalled, one time they were together, she suddenly left in the wee hours of morning to “fix” or repair one of her graffiti a tags in New York’s East Village. Claw had got word that somebody had written graffiti over her tag and went out as soon as she could to surreptiously restore her tag to its former glory. That’s commitment. Coincidentally many years later, we worked briefly with an advertising agency in New York whose offices were next to the office of Claw’s growing fashion business. We hadn’t seen much of Claw in recent years in terms of graffiti art. So it was a welcome surprise to see her signature claw graffiti tag at the Beyond the Streets exhibition in Los Angeles a few weeks ago. Given her influence and the iconic style of her distinct graffiti tag, it shouldn’t be a surprise at all.